Last week it was announced that Prince Albert of Monaco was finally, finally getting hitched at the ripe old age of 52 to his long time girlfriend Charlene Wittstock. The couple will be getting married next year (long enough for him to change his mind) in a civil ceremony (the legal one) and then a religious ceremony in the same Cathedral where his parents were married. Both ceremonies will be televised.
His fiancee, Charlene, is from South Africa and competed in the Olympics in swimming for that country. She is 32, twenty years younger than her groom. According to PEOPLE they have been dating on and off for ten years, but other sources say that they met at the Winter Olympics in Torino. If it's been ten years then she ties Kate Middleton for woman who has had to wait for years for her prince to propose. No matter, the future princess who has been living in Monaco for the past 3 years has been tutored in protocal by her future sisters-in-law. Really? Princess Caroline and Stephanie would be the last two people I would look to for advice on protocal. Particularly Stephanie.
This engagement ends speculation that Prince Albert is gay, rumors which have been floating around for years. The dude has two illegitimate children, not that proves anything, so did Richard the Lionheart and Edward II. My feeling is that Prince Albert waited so long because of his sisters distasterous track record with marriage. Princess Caroline traded up when she married HRH Prince Ernst but now she's stuck with a guy who gets drunk and likes to pee on things in public, and Princess Stephanie who married her bodyguard, got divorced, had a baby out of wedlock and then ran off with the circus. How do you compete with that? Also, Albert being single meant that Princess Caroline's son Andrea would inherit the throne which won't happen if Charlene gives birth to an heir which is entirely possible since she's only 32. What do you want to bet that they have a baby 9 months after the wedding just like Princess Grace?
I myself am looking forward to seeing what the bride is going to wear next year. She wore a lovely dress to Princess Victoria's wedding in Sweden, which of course should have been a sign that an engagement was iminent.
I know the man's not been married but he has been fathering children. As to whether he and his intended love each other, we can only guess. These things seem to be more like business deals than love. At least we were spared their hooking up on a reality show!
ReplyDeleteWell, I should say so! Fifty-two!
ReplyDeleteI came to your blog by way of your comment at the Duchess of Devonshire's Gossip Guide.
Liked this from your Google profile:
"Please describe how you could take the peel off an apple all in one go:
Take your knife, and turn the apple slowly in your right or left hand as you peel."
My earliest food memory (age 2) was of being in my grandmother's kitchen watching her make apple pie and being fascinated by how she peeled every apple "in one go."